[NYAPRS Enews] OM: NC DOJ Deal Offers Housing, Job Training, Crisis Supports to 3, 000 Adult Home Residents

Mon Aug 27 08:10:25 EDT 2012

NYAPRS Note: Thanks to the US Department of Justice, a number of states
are agreeing to aggressively move people in segregated community
institutions like adult homes into communities with a broader range of
employment and crisis related assistance. 

New York has recently issued regulations that would require adult homes
with more than 25% of residents with psychiatric disabilities to move
them into the community and has proposed closing the front door to those
homes by proposing a ban on psych inpatient unit referrals to the homes
(see
http://www.nyaprs.org/e-news-bulletins/2012/2012-08-08-New-NYS-Reg.cfm).

While the state has proposed to move 1,050 residents into supportive
housing over the next 3 years, housing and supports are needed for the
thousands who await such relief.

North Carolina DOJ Agreement To Add 3,000 Housing Slots For People With
Serious Mental Illness

Open Minds  August 27, 2012

On August 23, 2012, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human
Services (DHHS) and the United States Department of Justice (DOJ)
announced an agreement on an eight-year plan that will add 3,000
community-based supportive housing slots for adult Medicaid
beneficiaries with serious mental illness (SMI). Priority for the new
housing slots will be given to individuals with SMI who reside in an
adult care home (ACH) determined by the state to be an Institution for
Mental Disease (IMD); residents of an ACH licensed for at least 50 beds
and in which 25% or more of the resident population has a mental
illness; and residents of an ACH homes licensed for between 20 and 49
beds and in which 40% or more of the resident population has a mental
illness. Priority will also be extended to individuals discharged from a
state psychiatric hospital who have unstable housing or are homeless,
and to individuals with SMI who are diverted from placement in an ACH.

The housing units must be permanent, afford tenancy rights, and enable
people with disabilities to interact with people without disabilities to
the fullest extent possible and must not limit access to the community.
Virtually all of these housing units must be scattered throughout the
community. The plan has the following benchmarks for housing capacity by
July 1, the start of each new fiscal year, to meet the 2020 target of
3,000 housing slots:

*	By July 1, 2013-Provide at least 100 housing slots and up to 300
slots
*	2014- Provide at least 150 more slots for individuals
*	2015- Provide slots to at least 708 individuals
*	2016- Provide slots to at least 1,166 individuals
*	2017- Provide slots to at least 1,624 individuals
*	2018- Provide slots to at least 2,082 individuals
*	2019- Provide slots to at least 2,541 individuals
*	2020- Provide slots to at least 3,000 individuals

The state will also invest in job training and employment assistance for
those citizens and will set up a comprehensive, 24/7 crisis care program
for people with SMI. This agreement is similar to ones signed by
governors of a number of other states including, among others, the
governors of Virginia and Georgia.

The agreement resolves a complaint to DOJ filed in 2010 by Disability
Rights North Carolina. The DOJ investigated the complaint, and in its
2011 letter of findings to the state said North Carolina had violated
the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by failing to provide
sufficient access to community-based services for 5,800 ACH residents
with SMI and instead relying on institutional and inappropriate ACHs as
the only option for services rather than providing an equal level of
support to help people remain in their own homes. DOJ also said the ACH
setting illegally segregates residents from community interaction with
people without disabilities.

DHHS released its plan on July 26, 2012, and the budget passed by the
General Assembly appropriated funding to make the agreement possible.
The eight-year timeline for completing the plan is intended to allow
sufficient time for North Carolina's mental health infrastructure adapt
to implement the terms of the agreement. However, DOJ was concerned that
the plan lacked enforcement mechanisms and was considering filing a
lawsuit because the state refused to enter into a formal consent decree.

A link to the full text of "North Carolina Agreement With DOJ On
Eight-Year Plan To Transition Adult Care Home Residents With Serious
Mental Illness To Community Settings" may be found in The OPEN MINDS
Circle Library
atwww.openminds.com/library/072512ncadultcarehometransplan.htm. 

OPEN MINDS also reported on this topic in "U.S. DOJ Investigates North
Carolina's Use of Adult Care Homes for Possible ADA Violations." The
article is available at
www.openminds.com/market-intelligence/premium/omol/2010/122010ds1.htm 

For more information, contact: Julie Henry, Acting Director, Public
Affairs Office, North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services,
101 Blair Drive, Raleigh, North Carolina 27603; 919-855-4842; Fax:
919-733-7447; Web site: www.ncdhhs.gov/publicaffairs; or Vicki Smith
Trader, Executive Director, Disability Rights North Carolina, 2626
Glenwood Avenue, Suite 550, Raleigh, North Carolina 27608; 919-856-2195;
E-mail: vicki.smith at disabilityrightsnc.org; Web site:
www.disabilityrightsnc.org <http://www.disabilityrightsnc.org/> . 

North Carolina DOJ Agreement To Add 3,000 Housing Slots For People With
Serious Mental Illness. (2012, August 27). OPEN MINDS Weekly News Wire.

North Carolina DOJ Agreement To Add 3,000 Housing Slots For People With
Serious Mental Illness
<http://www.openminds.com/market-intelligence/premium/omol/2012/082712id
d3.htm?#ixzz24kDPyJb4>  
Copyright 2011. OPEN MINDS 

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